


A Note to Those...

by emily4498



Category: Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-03-04 21:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18821449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emily4498/pseuds/emily4498
Summary: The Narrator begins a journal during his time in hibernation.





	1. Day 1

I have decided to try out a proper, formal journal chronicling my days here, underground and invisible. I’ve come to realize that it’s not simply being seen. There’s far more. I must be heard. My hibernation is not over. I am not prepared to be seen, nor am I prepared to be heard.

Perhaps, I will write my ponderings in this. Perhaps, I will write my dreams. Perhaps, I will write more. Perhaps, less. Perhaps, not as all.

A funny word, ‘perhaps.’ Perhaps, it is its uncertainty that is so strange. Perhaps, a definition is in order. It means uncertainty, but perhaps there is more. Where there is uncertainty, there is less substance. It is like smoke. It casts a shadow, but grasping it is nigh impossible. I am like smoke in the slums. I can writhe and crackle and scream, but I am just as invisible as the steam off boiling water. They think I’m harmless, I have no weight.

Eventually, though, they will have to pay attention. When my hibernation is over, when I am ready to come out and act and speak and _exist_ , they will not be able to look away from the effect I have, the shadow that I cast.

I looked down at the floor beneath my feet. I have no shadow in this room. I can be seen and see plainly, but I am still smoke. I have no substance. Like the smoke, I exist, but I am only leading them to the fire that is my existence. When I am ready to burst from the hole I have been hidden in, the hole I have sequestered myself away in, I will rage, insatiable. I will revel in my own existence. They will never see through me. I will shatter the mirrors that surrounded me before.


	2. A Note to Those Who Come After

I leave this to the next invisible man who comes to hibernate, to prepare, and eventually, to act. Use these lights to be seen. For now, you may be invisible to the world, but here, you can see yourself, you can prepare yourself. Here, you may hibernate in the light. I won’t be leaving much behind but this aborted journal of musings. I don’t believe it will be helpful. My path is my own. I can follow no other and no other can truly follow mine, but still, I leave this as a legacy.

After whatever drove you here, I expect any caution or warning will come far too late. After all, I found myself unable to properly heed any caution I received. But perhaps the action, or inaction, of leaving these scraps of written word may bring what is needed to the one who comes after me.


End file.
